Most Blocked, Trusted Websites of 2010: Facebook, YouTube, Google

When it comes to Google sites and Facebook, consumers, schools, and businesses seem to have a love/hate relationship with the web giants. Time spent on these sites, the content they offer, and privacy can be just as much a concern as the benefits of providing access to exceptional, worthwhile content.

Such is the case with an OpenDNS 2010 report on web content filtering and phishing. Facebook was the most blacklisted website, but interestingly was also the second most whitelisted site, while Google’s YouTube was both loved and loathed, appearing on both lists.

Top Blacklisted Websites

click to enlarge

Facebook was blocked for 14.2 percent of OpenDNS subscribers. Other social sites that were favorite targets of blacklisting: MySpace (9.9 percent) ranked second while Twitter (2.3 percent) ranked sixth.

Google-owned YouTube (8.1 percent) was the third-most blacklisted website, while Doubleclick (6.4 percent) was another off-limits site, ranking fourth. But it wasn’t all bad news for YouTube.

click to enlarge

When it comes only to business filtering, the list is pretty much the same. However, porn and P2P sites are replaced by Hotmail, Orkut, Meebo.com, and eBay.com, which join the most blocked list.

Top Whitelisted Websites

click to enlarge

YouTube was the most trusted site, permitted by 12.7 percent of users when other sites of this kind were generally blocked. Google dominated the top 5, as Gmail.com (9.2 percent) ranked third; Google.com (9 percent) ranked fourth; and Translate.Google.com (6.3 percent) ranked fifth. Facebook, at 12.6 percent, ranked second.

Open DNS provides DNS services for consumers, schools, and businesses. The company says it resolves 30 billion DNS queries per day, services 15 million requesting IP addresses per day, and handles DNS for 1 percent of all Internet users worldwide.